Prominent Gaza doctor and family kept 3 Israeli hostages captive in home
Neighbors of the Al Jamals said that the family's proximity to Hamas was known, but that they were unaware that they were holding hostages in their home before the Israeli rescue
The Wall Street Journal provided new details this Monday on the Gazans who held the three hostages recently released by the IDF, based in particular on the testimony of neighbors.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) successfully rescued Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv, who were being held captive by Palestinian families in the Nuseirat camp.
The hostages were discovered in the home of the Al Jamal family, prominent locals known for their affiliations with Hamas. Ahmed Al Jamal, a 73-year-old doctor and imam, continued his daily routines, working in a public clinic in the mornings and running a private clinic in the afternoons, while his wife and son, Abdullah Al Jamal, monitored the hostages.
Neighbors expressed shock upon learning about the hostages, noting that while they were aware of the Al Jamal family's Hamas connections, they had no knowledge of the captives held within their midst.
The tightly packed neighborhood made it difficult to keep such a significant secret, with some residents remarking on how sounds from adjacent buildings were often audible. "Sometimes you can even hear people coughing” from one building to another, they noted.
The rescued hostages recounted their ordeal, describing being confined to a locked and guarded room upstairs while hearing Abdullah's family go about their daily lives downstairs. They had minimal interaction with Abdullah's children, only seeing them once when allowed briefly into the kitchen.
The rescue operation culminated in heavy airstrikes that destroyed the Al Jamal residence and claimed the lives of Abdullah, his wife Fatma, and his father Ahmed. Local reports indicate that their children survived the ordeal.
Close to the Al Jamal home, the Abu Nar family similarly held Noa Argamani, another hostage, before their building was also destroyed during the rescue operation, resulting in casualties among its occupants.
The June 8 rescue mission unfolded amid fierce street battles between IDF soldiers and Hamas militants, exacerbating death and destruction in the neighborhood. “If we had known that kidnapped people were here, we would have left,” several of them said to The Wall Street Journal.